'In the form of his life' - Brown Boots one to follow in William Hill-sponsored Naas action Naas stages a competitive eight-race jumps card on Wednesday afternoon, four of those races sponsored by William Hill, including the opening maiden hurdle and three challenge series handicaps. The action kicks off at 14:20 and runs through to the finale at 17:22 and our expert, Marcus Buckland, has provided selections and analysis on his best bets from the meeting. Wednesday’s Naas Tips 14:20 Naas - Brechin Castle 15:20 Naas - The Big Cloud 16:52 Naas - Themorethemerrier 17:22 Naas - Brown Boots 14:20 Naas - Brechin Castle There will be a lot of interest in Brechin Castle, who makes his long-awaited return from injury on his debut for Willie Mullins. The eight-year-old, who was purchased by Steve Brookhouse for £165,000 following his win in an Irish point-to-point in February 2023, created a good impression in bumpers for his son, Ben, scoring by a wide margin at Sedgefield on his rules debut that October prior to landing a Cheltenham Listed event the following month. He lost his unbeaten record in another Listed contest at Ascot in December 2023, but ran extremely well, beating all bar Dan Skelton’s Let It Rain and pulling nicely clear of the third-placed Celtic Dino - who is now a 147-rated hurdler. An absence of 803 is clearly concerning, but he could just have too much quality for these rivals. 15:20 Naas - The Big Cloud Shane Crawley’s The Big Cloud was in the process of running a big race over fences when falling at the second-last at Clonmel in January and makes plenty of appeal now reverting to hurdles off a lower mark. The selection made a winning chase debut over 2m here in December, the eight-year-old keeping on strongly from the last to score by a growing three lengths in the heavy ground. He’s able to race off the same mark of 99 on this occasion and leading conditional rider Eoin Staples takes another 5lb off his back. 16:52 Naas - Themorethemerrier The Martin Brassil-trained Themorethemerrier makes his handicap debut off a potentially lenient mark and gets the vote in an open race. The six-year-old, a half-brother to bumper/2m hurdle winner Potters Story, didn’t show a great deal on his first two outings, but there was clearly much more to take from his latest Punchestown run when he recorded a Racing Post Rating of 104. There’s enough stamina in his pedigree to suggest he’ll stay this new distance of 2m3f and, with him officially rated 105, he really won’t need to improve much at all to figure. Mark Walsh, who has partnered four winners from his last eight rides, has opted for the selection over Teenage Kiss, the other JP McManus-owned runner in the field. 17:22 Naas - Brown Boots The Liam Cusack-trained Brown Boots is in the form of his life at present and shouldn’t be overly inconvenienced by the 7lb penalty he shoulders for last week’s ready Clonmel success. The seven-year-old comes here on a hat-trick, having won over fences at Navan last month and followed up on his return to hurdles at Clonmel, the gelding travelling strongly on both occasions and hitting the line seemingly with plenty left in the tank. There really aren’t too many that can be fancied against him in his current form and a clear round ought to see him maintain his 100 per cent record over 3m.
